Chapter Eleven Prey and Prosecution

Chapter Eleven

Prey and Prosecution

 

 

Mark

 

Mark smiled contentedly the whole ride home. He had been with Aly all evening and had the most perfect night of all.

Unfortunately things hadn’t improved with his mother, she was still furious with him for caring if anything happened to Aly. It made him want to leave home, leave town, but he couldn’t. He had to stay to protect the pack. To protect Aly. As much as he hated to admit it, he didn’t dare leave. He was afraid that, if he did, his mother would kill Aly.

He hated that he couldn’t tell anyone how happy he truly was or the reason for his happiness.

“Mark!” his mother called from downstairs.

“Yes?” he asked, appearing at the head of the stairs.

“What about that package you were supposed to pick up? Do you have it? Did Juan actually give it to you?”

“Yes, I have it. Why wouldn’t he have given it to me?” Mark demanded. Again he was seeing the distrust in her that caused the pack to resent her.

“Good, I don’t trust him. Now, give it to me.”

He glared at his mother. “I trust him, he’s never given anyone reason to distrust him. And no, I won’t give it to you. I’m supposed to give it to dad.”

“He isn’t here. Give it to me and I’ll ensure that he gets it.”

“You’re not beta. I can’t give it to you.”

“I’m your mother, you don’t have a choice. I said give it to me. Now. Do as I said.”

“No,” Mark said defiantly. “You don’t have the authority to make that command.”

“Then you can leave.”

“Leave? Not a problem, I’ll be gone by seven.”

She suddenly looked worried. “Where will you go?”

“Wherever I want. That’s none of your concern.” He resented the way she was so willing to throw him out until he was actually going to leave, then she acted like a mom and didn’t want him to go. It hurt him that he didn’t mean much to her until he’d be on his own. He knew where he would go. He had a few people he could call on for a while, until he could get things sorted out. He turned and walked angrily back upstairs to pack.

 

 

Aly

 

“Mom, I told you I was going, what is with you lately? You knew I was going and you knew when I’d be home. I was home ten minutes early. Why are you so mad? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You did not tell me you were going,” my mom said for the tenth time. “You left me panicking because I had no idea where you were or when you were coming home, I was about to call the police and file a missing persons report.”

“Melodramatic much?” I asked, rolling my eyes at my mom. “Missing persons because I called and told you I would be out for three hours in the evening?”

“No, you didn’t tell me.”

“Fine,” I shrugged. “I didn’t tell you, whatever. I have homework to do.” I turned and started for the stairs.

“Wait just a minute, Alyson Katherine Donovan,” she said angrily.

“Full name, wonderfully intimidating,” I said sarcastically as I continued up the stairs. I walked into my room and closed the door behind me. I paused and turned the lock. I didn’t want to be bothered again.

I sat down at my computer and got right to work on Eternal Darkness, my favorite story. I was aiming for at least three thousand words per chapter, so far I had made my goal. Now I wanted to keep it that way. At least I had the support of my friends, even if my mom wouldn’t let me write. I had to be careful about it though, I had everything saved on my computer as well as keeping it all in my e-mail, on a flashdrive, and saved to CD. I had thought about copying it all into a notebook, but decided against it, since that would take time that I didn’t have with mom around.

I frowned and glanced at my phone. I was waiting for Mark to call or text, he always did before going to bed. He was twenty minutes late already. Oh well, when you’re the kid of the alpha of the most powerful werewolf pack around I guess unexpected stuff comes up and you can’t keep promises, even to your girlfriend. I smiled as I thought the word to myself. I was his girlfriend. I liked the sound of it. I hoped it might stay that way for a while. Maybe even change to something more someday. Suddenly, the idea of being co-alphas didn’t anger me and I was amused with myself for that. How could it be that I had fallen in love with the one person I hated more than any other?

I smiled contentedly and continued to write, the characters coming more to life tonight than any other time I had sat down here in the last month or so, since I’d found out I was moving here. I was on a role tonight. I couldn’t seem to stop writing. The ideas kept coming and the more I wrote, the more ideas flooded my brain. I couldn’t wait to send this to Rose, hopefully she’d like it. Hopefully I had done better this time.

Maybe someday, if I ever got anything published, I could finally tell my mom how much I loved to write, or maybe I wouldn’t be able to. I might always have to keep it hidden and use the pen name I’d come up with. I’d even come up with a basic sheet on her. I pulled up my word document with the info on my pseudonym.

Full Name: Christine (Christy) Donahue

Gender: Female

DOB: September 13 1993

Appearance: wavy Jet-black hair to the base of her shoulder-blades and dark chocolate brown eyes.

History: Grew up in the Texas countryside with acres of land and 3 horses of her own. Her family was very wealthy and she always had everything she could ever want. Everything money could buy. She was spoiled but her parents never really paid a lot of attention to her. She didn’t have any siblings or real friends to talk to. She always kept her emotions bottled up inside. She went out with some friends the night of her 17^th birthday and was attacked by a group of guys. She’s never been the same since.

Personality: Quiet and reserved, doesn’t like anyone, has always been bitter about her life. Can be cruel, but not to those who know her best.

I smiled in satisfaction, perfect. Only the birth date was the same as mine. If I needed anything more on the pseudonym I’d come up with it later. I probably wouldn’t, but at least I had the basic idea of it all.

Thirty minutes later my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw Mark’s number. I snapped the phone open and brought it to my ear.

“Hey,” I smiled.

“Hey, I’m sorry I’m so late calling, my mom decided to kick me out of the house and I had to pack and get the heck out of there.”

“She kicked you out?” I exclaimed in surprise. Why would she have kicked him out?

“Yeah, she did. I didn’t do what she wanted me too.”

“What did she want you to do?”

“To give her that package I got from Juan last night. I’m only supposed to give it to my father.”

“Oh. Glad I didn’t get kicked out. My mom is still insisting I didn’t tell her that I was going out last night. She is so melodramatic she even almost called the cops and reported me missing!”

He laughed. “Sorry, that’s…”

“Crazy? Insane? Melodramatic? Annoying?” I suggested a few of my top  descriptive words in this case.

“Is there an ‘all of the above’ option?” he asked.

“Yes,” I laughed. “Of course.”

“Ok, I choose that one.”

“Ditto, twin,” I said, quoting one of my favorite books.

“Nice,” he replied. “I’m sorry I got you in trouble.”

“Nah, you didn’t,” I reassured him. “It’s just my mom being crazy. She’ll figure it out, I hope. I don’t know what’s with her lately, she seems to forget so much more than she used to.”

“What do you mean by that, exactly?” he asked anxiety suddenly in his voice.

“Even just a few days ago she didn’t seem to forget half as much as she does now.”

“Before she was captured?”

“Yeah, before that she didn’t forget nearly as much as she has been since. Why?”

“I was afraid of that,” he muttered. “I thought maybe they hadn’t really done that, since my mom hasn’t shown any symptoms. They must have tampered with their memory somehow. I know they can, I’ve seen it before, I think they must have some witch or warlock on their side.”

“Wait, a witch or warlock messed with my mom’s memory?”

“Yes, I think so,” he answered solemnly. “We’ll have to find one of our own who can fix it.”

“How? How do we go about finding one? Put an add in the paper?”

He snickered. “No, we talk to the people we know, see if they know anyone who could fix this.”

“Ok, any ideas on who to ask?”

“A few. I’ll start calling around, you get some rest.”

I grimaced. He was going to kill himself keeping up this pace. “You need rest, too, you are the one who almost died after all,” I countered.

“Alright, I’ll make a couple of calls and then go to bed, ok?”

“Ok.”

“I love you,” he said gently.

“I love you, too,” I smiled happily. “Good night.”

“Night,” he answered.

I hung up and laid the phone on my bed. I wrote for another hour before pulling on a pair of black pajama pants and crimson tank top and crawling into my bed, turning my CD player on and laying down to go to sleep.

Sleep did not come easily for me that night knowing that we needed a witch or warlock to help my mother. Of all the times I’d wished she would forget something, I had never meant it, nor had I wished for this.

 

 

♠♠♠

 

 

I had been running for hours, I didn’t seem to tire the way I should. I was terrified, though I wasn’t sure what had me so frightened. Something was following me, of that I was certain, but who was it and what did they want? Why were they scaring me so badly? Was this just a game? I glanced back over my shoulder and saw something, a giant chestnut wolf, coming at me. I pushed myself harder, trying desperately to get away. If only I had learned to shift.

I focused hard on shifting from human form to wolf form and felt ice shoot through my veins. I wasn’t sure what was going on but I suddenly felt an icy pain radiating through my body. My limbs felt as though they were being stretched and bent in strange ways I wasn’t used to. I collapsed then and there, unable to move any further. The icy pain and stretching of my limbs lasted only seconds before I could move again. Everything was different now, I could see more clearly now, I could hear all the little things that had been indistinct before. I glanced at myself and smiled, I was a wolf. A reddish-gold wolf. I started to run again, running toward some unknown destination.

I was terrified, I wished Mark was here to help me. Then the realization hit me. He wasn’t here. He said he’d be here, why wasn’t he? I looked back and saw that a second wolf had joined the chestnut one. A chocolate brown wolf with shocking emerald eyes. Tears clouded my vision as I realized what this meant. Mark had betrayed me. He’d sent them after me. He had come with them to hunt and kill me. I turned my focus back to running. It was all I could do not to stop and just let them kill me. After having been betrayed that way, to have him take my heart and rip it to shreds the way he had, I didn’t want to go on. Only one thing kept me going. The thought of his face, contorted with pain, as I ripped him limb from limb for… what was I so angry about? What had he done?

The horribly vivid image of my parents lying on the floor, blood pooled around their lifeless forms, reminded me. He had used me to get close enough to them to kill them. To eliminate the immediate threat to his families position of power. I would have to die to, of course, I was a threat as well. I, like my parents, had the power to take from them the one thing they had always wanted and now had. The position of alpha family.

Where would I go? I didn’t want to drag Kat, Chris, or Cassie into this mess. I couldn’t let them be hurt because of me. Wait, where was Michael? He should be here. I realized suddenly that I  had nowhere to go that people wouldn’t be hurt. Of course, it was obvious that I wouldn’t want the people I cared about to get hurt. Maybe it would be safe for me to go to one of them. No. Mark knew me well enough to know I would think of that. It would be first on his agenda. Which meant I had to warn them. As soon as I escaped these maniacs, I would shift back to my human form and call them, tell them to get out of here and never come back. Never tell anyone where they were. Especially me. I would get them killed.

Please, Aly, slow down, Mark pleaded in his mind. One thing I had learned about wolves was that we could project our thoughts to anyone we wanted to. We could also block anyone we chose from being able to.

Never, I answered. You’ll pay for what you did to my family.

I glanced back and saw those emerald eyes narrow. I realized now who the chestnut wolf must be. It had to be Juan, the beta, who else would Mark trust enough to have come with him on this mission of death and destruction. I couldn’t believe he’d made such a fool of me. I had honestly thought he loved me. That he cared if I was hurt in any way. He did. As long as it meant he could hurt me. Destroy me. Cause me to lose my will for life. How could I have let anyone get to me this way? I was a fool in love. That was how I could be faulted for this. I had fallen in love with someone who betrayed me. A walkaway Joe. Just like the song. I let the silent tears fall as I ran. Tears of pain, betrayal, and love. I would shed my tears now and kill him at the next opportunity. No tears would be shed when that time came.

They fell back and I kept running. I didn’t dare stop. I couldn’t let them catch up with me.

Hours later I finally allowed myself to shift back and call my friends. I heard a horribly familiar voice come over the line.

“Hello, Aly,” he said. I could almost hear the smug smile in his voice.

“Mark,” I whispered. “What have you done?”

“Care to guess?”

“You didn’t… You couldn’t have… Please, tell me you didn’t kill Kat.” I was sobbing by now. He’d beaten me there, he’d killed her.

“Not yet, you interrupted me.”

“Please, don’t hurt her. Don’t hurt any of them. This is between you and me, not them.”

“You brought them into it. They wouldn’t have been involved if you hadn’t decided to call and warn them. You see, I have someone working for me who knows every decision made by anyone I ask him to watch. He called when you decided to run to them. To your friends.”

I was horrified. I heard a scream of agony before the line went dead. She’d been killed. The tears continued to fall and I let them. Somehow I knew that Kat had been the last to be killed. The others were already dead.

 

 

♠♠♠

 

 

I jerked awake with a start. it had been such a horrible dream. I snatched my phone, not caring what time it was, I needed to check on my friends. To make sure they were ok. I shivered once. I had the creepy feeling someone else was in the room with me. I looked around and saw someone standing nearby. He was somewhat reminiscent of Michael and Cassie. He had the same massive wings. His were a fiery orange tinged with black. He had a shock of sandy hair that fell into night black eyes.

“Hello, Aly,” he smiled. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Who are you?” I demanded.

“Now, now, questions are not allowed from you. I ask the questions or that frightening dream you had will become reality. I promise. I can cause that to happen.”

I stared at him in shock. Who was he and what did he want?

“Am I understood?” he asked.

“Perfectly,” I answered icily.

He moved closer to me and placed his warm hand on my cheek. “My dear girl, coldness is not the best way to respond to me. Each time you act coldly toward me, someone in this town dies. You don’t want to be the cause of very many deaths, now do you?”

“Of course not,” I answered softly.

“Much better,” he approved. “I will not count that last answer, as you were not yet aware of the rules. Now, where is it?”

“Where is what?”

“tsk, tsk,” he sighed. “One point from you. Answer the question correctly. Where is the stone?”

“Stone?”

“Yes, the lapis lazuli with onyx. Where is it?”

Lapis lazuli with onyx? What was he talking about? “I’m sorry,” I spoke slowly. “I truly don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You were right there when it was handed to that idiot of a wolf, Mark Night,” he snapped.

“That’s what was in the package?” I fought to ignore that he had just called Mark and idiot. I knew that responding would kill someone.

“Of course. Where is it?”

“I’ve never seen it.”

He frowned thoughtfully and looked me over. “Strange, you’re telling the truth. Why wouldn’t he have shown it to you or told you about it? He plans to be co-alpha with you.”

My heart fluttered despite my situation. He wanted to be co-alphas? That meant we’d be together for eternity. Could he really want that?

He shrugged. “I’ll be seeing you. Next time, have the stone or Mark Night dies.”

I nodded mutely. I wanted to point out to him that he had said the dream would happen, Mark’s death had not been in the dream. Maybe he would make the rest of it come true, and I would  pick up where the dream left off and kill Mark. I had to warn him, I couldn’t allow myself to hurt him..

Birdman unfurled his twenty feet of magnificent wings and took off out the window, leaving me to go into a full-fledged panic attack.

 

 

Mark

 

Mark woke with a start when his cell phone rang. He looked at the clock and was irritated to find it was only two in the morning. Who would be calling at this time in the morning?

“Hello?” he asked irritably. He hadn’t even bothered to look at the caller ID.

“Mark, I’m sorry to call so early, I just…” Aly’s panicked voice came over the line.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded, anxiety replacing irritation.

“I just wanted to make sure you were ok,” she answered.

“Yeah, I’m fine, why? What happened?”

“Terrifyingly vivid dream.”

“What happened in the dream?” He was curious. What could possibly have happened to frighten her so badly?

“You… The others… You killed them.”

“Killed who?” She wasn’t making sense.

“Kat, Cassie, Michael and Chris,” she sobbed.

“Aly, I didn’t hurt any of them. I would never do that, they’re my friends.” He spoke soothingly, hoping she would believe him.

“I know. I guess… I guess I just wanted to make sure.”

“Something else happened, what is it?”

“I can’t tell you,” she answered.

“Why?”

“I don’t dare. If I do, the dream will become real. I can’t let that happen.”

“Nobody has the power to make that happen,” he tried to reassure her. Except witches and warlocks. He corrected himself mentally.

“He does.”

“Who?” She obviously knew of someone who could. Who could she have met?

“Nobody. It doesn’t matter. I can’t tell you. But I need to ask you something.”

“Ask away,” he said quickly. Anything to help calm her down.

“What was in the package?”

“A stone.”

“Lapis lazuli with onyx?”

“How did you know that?”

“That doesn’t matter, it’s part of what I can’t tell you. Why would someone want it? What’s so special about it?”

“It’s a powerful stone, the combination of the lapis lazuli with the onyx combines the magic naturally within both stones. In the wrong hands, it could literally allow evil to reign.”

“So, the ‘wrong’ people want to get a hold of it so they can rule?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” he agreed.

“I don’t know what to do,” she sobbed. She sounded so scared and upset. He didn’t know what to do to help her.

“Aly, I’m on my way, stay where you are.”

“But, my family…”

“I don’t care. I’m on my way. Please, don’t do anything stupid.”

“Ok,” she agreed tearfully. “I won’t go anywhere. I’ll stay here.”

“Thanks. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Ok.”

He hung up, got dressed in a hurry, and ran out the door. Racing to get to Aly. Desperate to know why she was so distressed.

“Where are you going?” Chris asked, sitting up.

“Sorry, something’s happened. Aly’s panicking.”

“What is it? Is she ok? What happened?”

“Nightmare,” he answered shortly. “I don’t know anything else at the moment.”

Chris nodded and lay back down. “Lemme know when you sort it out.”

“Right.” Mark moved quickly out the door, pulling it closed softly behind him.

 

 

♠♠♠

 

 

He ran up the front porch steps and rang the bell, growing impatient when nobody answered at first. He rang the bell again. Still no answer. He started to panic. What if something had gone wrong? What if she’d been hurt? Why didn’t anyone answer the door?

He finally heard footsteps on the other side of the door. It opened slightly and he saw a woman standing behind it. From what he could see of her she was about forty-five with straight, raven-black hair and the same ice blue eyes Aly had.

“Yes?” she asked nervously.

“Mrs. Donovan? I’m Mark Night,” he said politely.

“Oh, of course. Come in.”

He frowned. For someone who had just escaped being killed and stood to be captured, she wasn’t being very cautious.

“Thank you,” he answered, following her into a spacious living room. Aly was curled up in the far corner of the couch, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs, her face buried in her arms.

He walked a few steps into the room. “Aly?”

Her head snapped up and he saw the sheer panic in her eyes. She was off the couch and in his arms in a matter of seconds, knocking him off balance in his surprise at her reaction. He wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her tightly to himself.

She sobbed into his chest, murmuring unintelligibly.

“Shh,” he said softly, stroking her hair soothingly. “Shh, it’s ok, you’re ok.”

She tightened her arms around his waist and continued to sob.

“Aly, it’s ok. Everyone is ok,” he murmured soothingly, pulling her gently toward the couch.

She nodded against him and he felt the icy coldness of the damp spot her tears had created on his shirt. She seemed to do this a lot, he noted.

He sat down on the couch, pulling her with him. After about five more minutes she finally started to calm down.

“Mark,” she whispered. “Someone is after that stupid rock.”

“Of course, I knew someone would be,” he said softly.  “Why does that upset you so? Nobody will get it. The entire pack is behind us in this. That ‘rock’ as you called it is what helps us to stay in power. Without it, any other pack, or anyone else, no matter the species, could take that from us. The Wolflords were the bottom of the barrel pack; nobody even knew we existed until we found the lapis. Once we had it in our possession, we were top of the heap. Everyone wanted to be in our pack. Of course, the alpha at that time decided to pick and choose his pack members carefully. The pack split up and formed their own packs except for a limited few he chose to keep. Those other packs are our enemies to this day because of that. They would give anything to get the lapis from us and destroy us. The original alpha was an idiot who made lasting enemies faster than he could kill a flea.”

“It isn’t a pack, or even a wolf, that’s after it.”

“What do you mean?” he asked incredulously.

“He reminded me of Michael and Cassie, like maybe he was half Phoenix,” she explained.

“Yes, that makes sense. They’ve always wanted to take over.”

“Why?”

“Nobody’s really sure. It’s suspected that they may have ruled before the wolf and wish to rule again. Our history indicates that they did rule before the wolf but were defeated in a war for power and the wolf took over. Thus the reason for the hatred between our kinds.”

Aly shuddered. This was not a pleasant thought, though it did match up with the creepy guys words, actions and appearance. She didn’t even want to think about what would happen if he got the stone. People would die one way or the other. Maybe giving him the stone would save her friends, but what of the rest of the world? What was the right answer?

“Can I see it?” she asked suddenly.

“See what? Oh, the lapis?”

She nodded.

“Sure, tomorrow, I’ll show it to you.”

She smiled slightly.

“Did you check in on the others?” he asked suddenly.

“Yeah, they’re fine. They got a little irritated with me for calling at two in the morning, but I couldn’t help it. I had to make sure they were ok.”

“I understand.” Mark kissed the top of her head. “Are you ok?”

“Much better now,” she replied quickly.

He nodded, seeming relieved. “Good, I was worried for a while there.”

“I’m sorry,” she apologized quickly, looking somewhat ashamed.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Aly. You were scared, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Mrs. Donovan smiled. “He is sweet,” she commented.

Mark paid no attention to her and Aly didn’t seem to notice her mother had spoken.

He stayed a little while longer, making sure Aly and her family would be ok. An hour and a half after he’d arrived, he finally left to go home and try to get a few more hours sleep before starting his day.

 

 

♠♠♠

 

 

He was walking along a dark side street, perfectly at ease, when he heard the steady beat of familiar footsteps followed by a slight rustling of wings. He turned slowly to face the man behind him.

“Seyton,” he said calmly. “Might I ask what you’re doing here?”

“I want the lapis, of course. Hand it over and nobody will be harmed,” the winged man said.

“I don’t have it with me.”

Seyton shrugged and spread his wings, a signal to his followers who swarmed around Mark, trapping him where he was. He felt tendrils of pain, controlled by Seyton, lashing at his sides, drawing blood when instructed to do so.

An overwhelming blackness threatened to overtake Mark and he welcomed it. Welcomed the escape from unbearable agony. Please, don’t hurt Aly, was his last conscious thought.

 

 

Aly

 

I was relieved my stupid dream hadn’t come true and that I had been able to tell Mark everything. I had told him what the dream had been about, though I hadn’t told him everything, and even told him my fears that it might have been true because it was so vivid, and he hadn’t gotten angry with me. He’d comforted and reassured me, he’d been concerned about the others well-being. I’d been a fool to even be worried about it at all.

I smiled to myself as I walked back upstairs to my room. I knew I wouldn’t sleep much more tonight. If I could even get back to sleep, so, I sat down at my computer to write. I was getting one heck of a word count these last few days. Stress equals lack of sleep, which equals a good word count. Oh well, sleep wasn’t something that had ever come easily to me. Writing was. Yay me. Haha, I’d always hated not being able to sleep. Seems to come with the territory though, authors don’t sleep much, at least not from what they say. I wondered how many published authors had actually slept through the night when they were infants. I never had. My mom still picked on me about it. Seventeen and a half years and I’d never slept through a night in my life.

I turned my I-pod onto the rock/metal folder, I kept the two mixed together, since they were kinda my favorite styles and the most inspirational for my type of writing. I’d recently got an idea from a metal song I loved. A creepy vampire-y type story. It was ideal. I sat down and started to type up the idea. After a few minutes I decided I needed a story to surround this particular scene. I needed ideas. Now. So I pulled up my favorite instant messenger and IM’d my friend, Loriane, for ideas, she was always good at helping me with that kind of thing.

VampireLover17: Hey, I just got this really awesome scene written for a story and I need a story to surround it now.

WolfQueen71: What kind of scene?

VampireLover17: The guy is a vampire. He goes into the bedroom of a girl to feed on her. She wakes up to find him drinking her blood.

WolfQueen71: Nice! What kind of reaction does that get?

VampireLover17: Not what he expected.

WolfQueen71: Send me the scene!

VampireLover17: Ok, hang on a sec.

WolfQueen71: ‘Kay.

I pulled up my e-mail.

 

To: WolfQueen71

Subject: Story scene

Hey,

So, here’s that scene I promised you. Hope you like it!

 

He glided silently through the bedroom window, the usual soft mist undulating around him. He crept softly to the bed and bent over her. He suddenly found himself unable to look at her face. He was unbearably thirsty.

I Should have hunted first. He thought.

He hesitated, wondering if this would be a good idea. He inhaled deeply, breathing in her scent. It was unbearable; he needed to drink her blood. Now.

Without really thinking about it he pressed his lips softly to her throat, found the two small puncture marks his fangs had left that first night he’d been there. The only time he’d fed on her. He bit down gently. He felt his fangs penetrate the skin and the flow of warm, delicious blood. Better than anything he had ever tasted before. Like the richest, purest milk chocolate as it ran, pleasantly warm, down his throat.

She moaned and reached to brush lightly at his face, as she had the first time. Her hand brushed against his hair and she woke, startled.

(guys name) pulled back immediately.

He moved silently toward the window in the darkness. He stopped dead in his tracks as the light was turned on behind him.

“Who are you?” He heard a horribly familiar voice ask.

He turned slowly to face her, wishing he had dived out the window when she had turned the light on, instead of stupidly stopping dead.

 “(guys name)?” she gasped.

She had a hand at her throat, covering the two tiny wounds his fangs had left there.

“Hello, (girls name).” he whispered.

He was suddenly very conscious of the fact that there was blood running down his chin. Her blood. He reached instinctively to wipe it off on the sleeve of his shirt.

“What are you?” she asked in a whisper. She had meant to ask him what he was doing there but the rest of the words seemed to have become lost before she could speak them.

“I’m a vampire.” He answered. His voice betrayed no emotion but his self-hatred was clear in his eyes.

She moved her hand from her throat to inspect the blood on it.

“You were…were you…Drinking my blood?” she asked, staring at her hand.

“Yes.”

“Hmm. Were you here before?”

“Before?”

“On March 18.”

“Yes.”

“Did you drink my blood then?”

“Yes.” He looked down as he answered this question. He was ashamed by his thirst for blood.

 “That explains the unusual marks and confirms my theory,” Aly said calmly. “How often do you come here?” she asked.

 “Every night since I moved here,” he replied, his face turning bright red.

 “How often do you…?” She trailed off, unsure how to phrase the question so it wouldn’t sound offensive.

 “Drink your blood?” He finished.

 She nodded mutely.

 “Only the first time I was here and tonight.”

 

Lemme know what you think,

Aly

 

I clicked send and waited for it to finish sending. Dang it was slow today.

It finally went and I pulled the messenger back up.

VampireLover17: Sent!

WolfQueen71: Received. I’ll look it over and give you any ideas I have. Give me like five minutes.

VampireLover17: Yep.

I pulled up my favorite search engine and started researching the Mexican-American war for a town history on Ciudad Oscura, Texas, the town I had created and a friend had named for a book I was writing. Amusingly, it was for Eternal Darkness, the one I had just been telling Mark about at dinner the previous night.

Five minutes later my messenger dinged.

WolfQueen71: That’s a wicked scene! I love it. Do you think you could use it in Eternal Darkness?

VampireLover17: No, I don’t think so. Maybe something else?

WolfQueen71: What about that one you were talking about, The Captive?

VampireLover17: Maybe… But, he’s enslaved… would that work?

WolfQueen71: I dunno… Ooh! I got an idea!

VampireLover17: What is it?

WolfQueen71: What if he’s like an evil vampire who loves to kill and that’s what he’s going to do to her, but she wakes up and he just can’t bring himself to go through with it?

VampireLover17: Awesome! The scene won’t quite work the way it is…I’ll have to go over and edit it, see if I can make it work better. Thanks so much for all the help. :)

WolfQueen71: No problem, any other problems?

VampireLover17: Nope, that’s about it.

WolfQueen71: Ok, well, I’ll get back to work on my story and let you get back to yours. Let me know how it turns out!

VampireLover17: You bet I will. See ya!

WolfQueen71: Later, gator.

I grinned and signed off the messenger so I wouldn’t be tempted to IM people instead of working on my word count. A good idea, considering just how likely I knew that was to happen.

I got back to my research immediately. I’d been researching for hours before I actually started to write the history for the story. I thought it was pretty good. I’d have to post it online and see what everyone else thought of it. So far, the story it went with, Eternal Darkness, seemed to be pretty popular.

I was so irritated while writing the history, I would have loved to kill off Santa Ana in my story, I wanted the vampires and wolves to kill him, but I couldn’t do that since he didn’t die for another ten years after that war ended. Oh well, I guess you can’t do everything you want to in a story. The three hundred and some odd word history took me eight hours to research and three hours to write. A long time, especially for me. I could get almost two thousand words in an hour if the ideas flowed right.

 

 

♠♠♠

 

 

A few hours later, Kat called me.

“Hello?” I said.

“Hey, I was thinking, I know this store with some really cute stuff and I saved some money to spend there, wanna come with me?”

“Sure,” I agreed.

“Yay! Shopping spree!”

I laughed. “This should be fun.”

“Yep, be ready at noon?”

“You bet. I’ll be ready noon sharp.”

“’Kay, I’ll see you then.”

“Yep.” I hung up and looked at the clock. Ten o’clock? Where had the time gone? Sheesh, I’d better get a move on. I dug through my closet and pulled out a pair of boot cut khaki pants and a black fitted t-shirt with giant purple half star across the right side of it. I put a two inch wide purple headband in my hair and pulled on a pair of brown boots with a one and a half inch heel. I put on my usual makeup and looked at myself in the mirror. Reddish gold hair pulled neatly back, ice blue eyes set off by bronze eye shadow and framed with thick, dark lashes that only needed a touch of mascara. Perfect.

We arrived at the small store thirty minutes later and started looking around. They had everything arranged by color. Kat found a really cute pair of flat, black, knee-high boots that she just loved as well as a peace bracelet. I got a really cute pair of black ankle boots and a lacey, cream colored peasant blouse.

“I love this place!” Kat exclaimed happily.

“They’ve got some really cute stuff,” I agreed. We’d been wandering through the store for a while before we decided on what we wanted. They had so much cute stuff it was unbelievable. Of course, it was also higher priced.. I wouldn’t come here very often, only when I had plenty of money to spend, like I had today.

We went to have some pizza afterward and then went to her house to play video games. I wasn’t very good at it. She beat me at everything, I’m no good at any kind of video games. We spent a couple of hours playing video games before I decided I should start home.

“I had so much fun,” I grinned.

“So did I, we’ll have to do this again.”

“Yeah, that’d be awesome. I really gotta get home or my mom will panic. She’s been doing that a lot more than she used to.

“How come?”

“I have no idea.” I shook my head. It wasn’t an outright lie. I really didn’t know. My mom was acting really strangely. Mark was pretty sure he knew why, but I wasn’t sure how much I should tell Kat. I didn’t want to put her in any danger. Or anyone else. I couldn’t be responsible for any deaths. I turned to walk out the door and was chased by her little poodle.

 

 

Mark

 

He woke in his own bed, pain radiating through his body. He lay still for a minute, not wanting to get up for any reason. Then a horrible thought struck him. What had happened to Aly? Seyton had come to see him and from Aly’s description, he had gone to see her first. Had he gone back to her house after he’d finished with Mark? Was Aly ok? Was she even still alive? The panic swirled dizzyingly in his head. He reached for the phone he’d been sure would be sitting on his nightstand. It wasn’t there. He sat up slowly and looked around the room. His phone was nowhere in sight.

He heard a knock at his bedroom door.

“Come in,” he called.

The door opened and his mom came in. “Are you alright?” she asked solicitously.

“Yeah,” he answered. “I’m fine. Where’s my phone?”

“I don’t know. You didn’t have it when they found you.”

“When who found me?”

“Cassie and Chris, they found you lying on the sidewalk about a mile from here. What happened?”

“I had a run in with Seyton.”

“What did he want?”

“Same thing he always wants.”

“Which is?”

He smirked. So his dad hadn’t trusted her with the secret. It didn’t surprise him any. You never could tell what secrets she might decide weren’t worthy of keeping and which ones were. He didn’t doubt she would sell their secrets to anyone for the right price. Though what she might consider the ‘right’ price, he had no idea.

“Well?” she demanded. “What is it?”

“Nothing, really,” he answered.

She glared at him. “You’re so much like your father,” she complained.

“Is that a bad thing?” he asked.

“When it means you keep secrets from me, yes, it is.”

“It’s not my business to tell you. If you really want to know, ask dad. He obviously hasn’t told you, I don’t know what his reasoning is, but I’m not going to tell you if he hasn’t. Besides, you kicked me out, I no longer have to obey your rules. What are you doing here, anyway?”

“They called me when you were found. I came to make sure you were ok. By the way, who is Christy Donahue?”

“A girl,” he answered evasively.

“Anyone I know?”

“Nope.”

“The name sounds familiar…”

Mark shrugged. “She’s got some stuff published online, you might have heard someone talking about it.”

 “That could be, I suppose,” she agreed.

He smiled and relaxed. “I have some stuff I need to work on now, if you don’t mind.”

“Alright.” She turned and walked out of the room, pulling the door closed behind her.

Mark snatched the spare cell phone out of his nightstand drawer and dialed Aly’s number from memory.

“Hello?” she asked.

“Hey,” he answered.

“What’s with the spare phone? Lose yours?”

“Yeah,” he tried to laugh but couldn’t quite manage it. “I have no idea where it went.”

“That’s what I figured, considering you said you’d lost it.”

“Right, sorry.”

“What’s with you tonight?” she asked anxiously.

“I’m just distracted,” he answered hastily. “I was thinking about a lot of stuff. Mostly wondering where my dad is.” He hoped she’d believe him. Knowing her, his hopes were in vain.

“You don’t know where he is?”

“I haven’t seen him since the rescue. He went to a pack meeting that night and I haven’t seen him since. Haven’t heard from him either.”

“So you’re worried?”

“Very.”

“I don’t blame you. Have you tried to call him yet?”

“No, I’m going to after I’ve talked to you.”

“Then I won’t keep you. Let me know what you find out.”

“Of course. Thanks for your concern.”

“You’re welcome. I love you.”

He hung up without answering that and called his fathers cell.

“Hello?” a female voice asked.

“Hello, I’m Mark Night, I’m looking for my father.”

“You’re father is Nikolas Night?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry, I’m with the Jasper police department. I regret to inform you that your father is dead.”

“What? What happened?”

“He was attacked by a couple of gang members. They slit his throat and ran.”

“Thanks,” he said quietly before hanging up. He threw  himself down on the bed and let a few silent tears fall.